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In my personal opinion it would also mean supporting the legalization of psychedelics, because giving people the tools to gain information about their inner dimensions is as important for helping them understand the direction society should take as giving them the tools to gain information about their external world.
It would mean the complete absence of any authority controlling people's access to information or ideas in any way. Call it information anarchism, if you like.
Society Is Made Of Narrative. Realizing This Is Awakening From The Matrix.
Life in our society is like the movie The Matrix, except instead of AI keeping us asleep in an illusory world, it's psychopathic oligarchs. And instead of code, it's narrative. https://t.co/mkk41xhtZK
"- Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 13, 2021
Information anarchism is just as radical a goal as any other revolutionary ideology, because information control is so important to the continued existence of our status quo systems that it could never be achieved without drastic measures taken by the collective. The difference is that rather than claiming to know whether ideological models like communism or anarcho-capitalism would be better, for example, one only supports giving the people the means to collectively decide for themselves.
The idea of true information anarchy can be as frightening to the ego as the idea of total societal anarchy, because nobody being in control means there's nobody to stop it from going in a frightening direction. What if ideas I don't like gain popularity? What if people start thinking wrong thoughts and believing wrong beliefs?
But that's kind of the appeal, in my opinion. Really taking the brakes off of the way information moves through our world and letting humanity take full unbridaled advantage of the interconnectedness of our brains at this unprecedented juncture in terrestrial history could lead somewhere very bad, but it could also lead somewhere very good. And whatever ends up happening would be because of our own decisions instead of the decisions of a few powerful manipulators.
And right now the latter is what's happening. We're on a collision course with extinction via environmental catastrophe or nuclear war, and it's because of the decisions made by powerful people who are continuously working to control what ideas and information we consume. If information was really freed up, along with our ability to collectively control the direction humanity takes going forward, it's hard to imagine we'd mess it up any worse than they have.
Ten Times Empire Managers Showed Us That They Want To Control Our Thoughts
The single most under-appreciated aspect of our society is the fact that immensely powerful people are continuously working to manipulate the thoughts we think about our world. https://t.co/s9gIfQGb39
"- Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) May 29, 2022
And whatever world we built together will have been by our own informed consent, instead of the manufactured consent of elite manipulators. If we've seen it all and we still choose our own destruction, then that will have been our choice. Whatever happens will be humanity showing the universe what it's really made of. What we really are as a species.
And in my opinion, that's what real freedom looks like. Giving humanity the tools to go whatever way it wants to go, even if it's the way of the dinosaur. If you really, truly value freedom, in my opinion that's the wisest place to take your stand.
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